Best New England Drives For Viewing Fall Foliage

As we end summer and enter fall, take a look at some photographs captured by Courant photographers and reporters of foliage across the state. To submit your own photo, visit courant.com/fallfoliage.

STEVE GRANTSpecial to The Courant

A head start on best fall drives

Here comes the great fall foliage color, and you don't have to go far to see it.

Many people can find decent foliage color in their own neighborhood, of course, but there is something special about a daylong get-away to explore some new pocket of spectacular New England color. There are possibilities galore within a two-hour drive of Hartford, even traveling to Vermont or New Hampshire.

>>Connecticut has plenty of foliage color of its own (The ctvisit.com site predicts peak foliage will begin Oct. 9-15 in the state's northwest and northeast corners). In northeastern Connecticut, for example, it is easy to put together several hours of scenic touring in towns like Woodstock and Pomfret. From the Hartford area you might take Route 6 to scenic Route 169 north in Brooklyn and follow 169 to Woodstock. Be sure to pick a side road or two with minimal traffic to get a closer look at the spectacle of color. In Woodstock, a classic New England country village, Roseland Cottage, built in 1846 as the summer home of Henry and Lucy Bowen, is worth a stop, and you can count on seeing some beautiful sugar maples in the area. Roseland is a historic Gothic revival style home open until mid-October, Wednesday through Sunday, with tours available. The Woodstock green is across the street.

>>Nearby is the Taylor Brooke Winery, with a tasting room open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The winery allows visitors to picnic on the grounds. You'll have your pick of apples in and around Woodstock, with three orchards close by. In Woodstock, High Spring Orchard and Woodstock Orchards offer pick-your-own apples and also sell apples from their farm stands. In neighboring Eastford is Buell's Orchard, with pick-your-own and farmstand apples available.

>>In Berkshire County in Massachusetts towns like Stockbridge and Lenox are hugely popular destinations during the foliage season. But the county is a big one, with foliage options aplenty. Down in the southwest corner of the county is Mt. Washington, Ma., just north of Salisbury. No, it is not the Mount Washington in the White Mountains. This is the very quiet, scarcely populated town on the Connecticut and New York border. It is very woodsy, and well worth fall foliage exploration. If you can't find a tree that charms you with its color you are paying too much attention to your smartphone.

>>You'll want to take the short hike to Bash Bish Falls, a Massachusetts state park with a 60-foot waterfall. On the other side of the pool below the waterfall is a large and flat rock ledge, reached by a trail from the parking area and a perfect vantage point, the kind of place where you want to sit and just contemplate for a while as leaves flutter into the pool below.

The falls are located adjacent to Mount Washington State Forest, with more than 30 miles of trails in 4,169 acres. There are plenty of restaurants in nearby Salisbury, or Great Barrington, Mass.

>>Even a good look at Vermont foliage is possible in a single day. Travel north on Interstate 91 and you can be in the Brattleboro area in less than 90 minutes. Continue on Route 30 to Newfane and the ride is still considerably less than 2 hours. Newfane is a charmer of a quaint Vermont town, with plenty of old sugar maples shedding orange and red leaves in early October.

>>The annual Newfane Heritage Festival, which draws thousands of visitors, will be held Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 11 and 12. Artists and craftspeople set up tents on the town common, displaying their creative efforts. The event also includes children's activities, a food tent, homemade apple pies and a deli.

>>Southwest New Hampshire also is easily reached within two hours. Drive north on Interstate 91 into Vermont, then head east on Route 9 across the Connecticut River into New Hampshire continuing to Keene. In Keene take Route 12 south all the way to Fitzwilliam, another appealing little town with plenty of showy roadside trees. Take Route 119 back to Brattleboro.

>>This is a loop and it will bring you close by two state parks with trails — Rhododendron State Park and Pisgah State Park — that provide first-class views of forests in full fall color. Another option in this area is to climb Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey, an enormously popular mountain among hikers, especially in the fall. From the 3,165-foot summit the views of New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts are stunning. You will have lots of company on the Monadnock trails on an October day.